For today's test, I would like for you to download the data set you worked with previously: http://www.yourpersoanlity.net/psych350/spring2006/personalitytraits.sav. Recall that the information regarding the variable names is provided on the main web page. This data set contains the data you provided a last week on personality, health, and life satisfaction.
Once you've downloaded the data set and opened it in SPSS, I would like for you to answer the following questions. Please write your answers on a spare sheet of paper and turn it in to your TA at the end of the session. Please feel free to print this page if you find it helpful.
1. Personality psychologists have noted that people differ from one another with respect to a variety of psychological variables. For example, some people are more outgoing and sociable than others and some people are more kind and considerate than others. According to some psychologists, these kinds of differences can be efficiently summarized with respect to 5 personality traits: E (extraversion vs. introversion), A (agreeableness), C (conscientiousness), N (neuroticism vs. emotional stability), and O (openness to experience). These 5 traits are known as the "Big Five."
The responses to the "vbfi" items in the data set contain information about people's personality traits. These items come from the Big Five Inventory (BFI)--a self-report questionnaire that is designed to assess people's standing with respect to each of the five (i.e., the "big five") personality traits summarized above.
1. The first thing I would like for you to do is create a composite measure for each of the Big Five personality traits. For example, you will need to create a composite measure of E or extraversion that combines the various items that are thought to reflect this trait.
You've already created a composite for O or openness in an earlier class. We'll create a different kind of composite for O today.
Here are the items that are supposed to correspond to each trait:
N
vbfi2 = "Can be moody.";
vbfi8 = "Gets nervous easily.";
vbfi16 = "Is depressed, blue.";
vbfi18* = "Is emotionally stable, not easily upset.";
vbfi28* = "Is relaxed, handle stress well.";
C
vbfi3* = "Can be somewhat careless.";
vbfi5 = "Does a thorough job.";
vbfi6 = "Does things efficiently.";
vbfi13 = "Is a reliable worker.";
vbfi17* = "Is easily distracted.";
E
vbfi7 = "Generates a lot of enthusiasm.";
vbfi26 = "Is outgoing, sociable.";
vbfi29* = "Is reserved.";
vbfi31* = "Is sometimes shy, inhibited.";
vbfi33 = "Is talkative.";
A
vbfi9 = "Has a forgiving nature.";
vbfi11* = "Has an assertive personality.";
vbfi14 = "Is considerate and kind to almost everyone.";
vbfi21 = "Is helpful and unselfish with others.";
vbfi30* = "Is sometimes rude to others.";
O
vbfi10 = "Has an active imagination.";
vbfi12 * = "Has few artistic interests.";
vbfi15 = "Is curious about many different things.";
vbfi22 = "Is ingenious, a deep thinker.";
vbfi25 = "Is original, come up with new ideas.";
Please note that some of the items are "reverse keyed." I've placed an * next to the items that should be reverse keyed.
Please turn in a summary of the commands you used in SPSS to create each composite variable (e.g., O = mean(...))
2. Once you have created each composite, please determine the correlation among each of the five traits. In other words, use SPSS to generate a 5 by 5 correlation matrix. Do these traits tend to correlate with one another? For example, is it the case that people who are more emotionally unstable (i.e., people with high N scores) are more creative (i.e., high O scores)? Identify two correlations in this matrix that you find interesting and comment briefly on what those correlations mean.
3. Compare the means for men and women with respect to any one of the five traits that interests you the most. Do men or women have higher scores? What is the value of Cohen's d for that comparison?
4. Let's return to the question of birth order. Are there any personality traits other than openness that correlate with birth order? To make this easy, simply use the variable called "birth order"--don't worry about taking into account the number of siblings in the family as you have have done previously.